Nut-locking device.



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NU? LCKNG DEVCE.

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FAY EDWARD POSSON, OF PARK RIDGE, ILLINIS, ASSIGNOR TO SAFETY FIRST hf'lFACTURING C0., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATON CF ILLENS.

NUT-LOCKING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed September 1S, 19.14. Serial No. 862,340.

To all val1/'wm t may concern Be it known that l, FAY E. PossoN, acitizen of the United States, residing at Park Ridge, in the county ofCook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Nut-Locking Devices, of which the following is aspecifica tion.

My invention relates to a nut locking device-that is tc say, a devicefor holding a nut in place' on its bolt; and the invention has for itsprincipal objt to provide a de-n vice of this sort which, by taking afirm frictional grip on the bolt, will prevent a nut on the bolt frombeing backed of by vibration or other like disturbing forces.

A further Objectis to provide a nut lock which can be made at littleexpense and may hc very conveniently andexpeditiously puty in place onthe bolt or removed therefrom when necessary.

The invention is illustrated, in a preferred embodiment; in theaccompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of a bolt andnut and of a locking device constructed in accordance with theprinciplesI of my invention. Fig.,2is a view, in perspective, of thelocking device. Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3`of Fig. 2. Fig. 4is a crosssectional view of a nut from which the locking device is madeaccording to the method of manufacture which I consider preferable. Fig.5 is a view, in elevation, of abolt with its nut, showing, in fulllines, the nut locking device as' applied to the bolt, and, in dottedlines, the device before being, applied to the bolt; and Fig. 6 is aview of the bolt and locking device in osition on the bolt showing as'emi-circu ar section through the locking device at the root of thethread; the purpose of these `figures .being to illustrate thestrain inthe device produced by the `engagement of its thread with the threadingof the bolt. r-

Like characters of reference designate like parts in. the severalfigures of the drawing.

Referring to thedrawing, A designates a bolt which is shown as extendingthrough a member or structure B, C a nut and D a uut locking deviceconstructed in accordancewith my invention. The latter is in fact adiscontinuous nut which is made thin `enough to be apprcciably elastic,but of sumcient thickness te give it' strength. YFre-ferably, I take anordinary thin nut D1 (Fig. i) and sever the same with a cut E from theperimeter of the nut through to its apern ture. The threading of thenut, which pref erably consists of a. plurality of turns4 as shown, has'the same pitch of the bolt A. After severing the nutat E it is bent sothat the portions thereof on opposite sides of the cutare offset fromeach other a trifle less than the distance between adjacenttl'ireads-f-that is, a distance a trifle less than the pitch of the boltthreadingr The nut locking device thus formed may be screwed upon thebolt with a Wrench in the same Way that any ordinary nut would beapplied. By bending the nut so that the portions on opposite sides ofthe cut E are ofset, the spiral curvature of its threads in thedirection parallel to the axis of the nut is greater than thecorresponding curvature of the threading' ot' the bolt. Therefore, whenthe device is screwed on to the bolt, it is strained or distorted fromits normal shape as shown in Fig. 5; the pairs of small arrows in Fig. 5indicating by comparison the amount of this strain. The strain in thelocking device produces a binding stress between the threads of the nutand the threading of the bolt, which, if the offset beH tween the endsof the threads on the nut is made to closely approximate the pitchdistance, will be very considerable, particularly if the. nut be madethick enough to have three or four threads, as shown. The amount of theoffsct-that is, the difference in the axial compone-nt of the spirals ofthe nut threads and that of the threading of the bolt-should not quiteequal the distance be- |tween the turns of the threading on the bolt, orthe locking device would crossthreud and could not be applied to thebolt. In other words` the discontinuous points or. each thread of thelocking device, for ex ample, the ends f of the middle thread F (Fig. 3)must stand in such relation to each other that they will follow alongone after another in the same turn ot the spiral channel of the boltthreading.

The application of the locking device of my invention to a. boltrequires some force but is perfectly feasible by use of an ordinaryWrench. Qbviouely, the device can he removed holt in the same manner.

as the threading the standard nut with which it is used. A

` The. de vice is fundamentally different in 1ts prlnclple ofconstruction from the favmiliar nut locks of the threaded, elasticvgreater than the normal friction between an ordinary nut and a bolt.The bind between the locking device and the bolt is`produced only whenthe former is screwed down against the nut hard enough to draw theoffset end of the locking device against the outer face of the nut. Anyslight displacement of the locking device makes it as loose upon thebolt as an ordinary nut and, in fact, looser, as it necessarily isthinner than more important objection is that if the bolt stretches orif the nut embeds itself in the member or structure against which it isabutted, the nut is free to back away from thelocking device, whichthereby becomes loose 0n the bolt and will readily jar oli -the bolt.The difference between the nut locking device of my invention and .nutlocks of this type is that in my device the binding force between thelocking device and the bolt is wholly independent of the nut, althoughit may be increased somewhat when the device is screwed firmly againstthe nut. The bind between the'locking device and the bolt is dependent,primarily, on the Stress created by the straining of the nut resultingfrom the diference in curvature between its threads and the threading ofthe bolt. Hence, the device will-efectively prevent the nut from backingolf the bolt, even should there' be looseness between the bolt and thelocking device due to the stretching 0f the bolt or the shrinkage orabrasion of the surface against which the bolt is in'- tended to bear. A

lVV'hile the device of.l my invention has been shown and described as anut locking device-that is, a device for holding an ordinary nut inplace on' its bolt, it will be obvious that the same principles ofconstruction might be applied to the making of a self-locking nut,`mydevice being in fact a self locking nut capable of use in placeof-anordinary nut as well as with such nut for the purpose of keeping thesame in place.

I claim: i 1. The combination with a bolt of a locking nut formed with athread of the same pitch as the thread of a bolt, vsevered with a cutwhich extends from the perimeter of the nut through to its aperture andfrom end to end thereof and having the portions thereof on oppositesides of the cut offsetvr Vin the nut stand in such relation to eachotherv that in the application of the nutto the bolt one end of thethread follows the other in the sameturn 0f the bolt threadmg.

3. The combination with a bolt of a locking nut formed with a pluralityof discon. tinuous spiral threads, the inclination of which in respectto the axis of'the nut is ydifferent throughout the nut from thecorresponding inclination of the threading of the'bolt, the ends ofwhich threads in the nut stand in such relation to each other, in

each case, that in the application of the nut to the bolt the ends ofeach thread follow each other in the same turn of the bolt threading.

4. The combination with a bolt of a dis- 'wzontinuous elastic nut, lthethreading of which throughout the nut has a configuration different fromthe configuration of the threading of the bolt, whereby the applicationof the nut to the bolt strains the former Vand produces a binding stressbetweenthe threadings of the bolt and nut.A

5. As an article of manufacture, a nut internally threaded, severed by acut extendi ing from its aperture to its perimeter and throughout itslength and bent to oil-set the ends thus formed, said bend beingsubstantially uniform throughout the body of the mit.

- FAY EDWARD POSSON. Witnesses: j 1

g L. A. FALKENBERG,

H. M. HUTOHINGS.

